I Don’t Believe In Love – Queensryche

Queensryche were opening up for Metallica when Operation Mindcrime exploded. It was a ballsy move to do a concept album as they weren’t really established yet. In the history of concept albums (Coheed and Cambria and Madina Lake are exceptions here), the bands normally make the concept album once they become established and see a certain amount of success.

I Don’t Believe in Love was written by Chris DeGarmo and Geoff Tate. It was on the Operation Mindcrime album that was released in 1988. The album was produced by Peter Collins. Although the song is part of a larger story, on its own this song tells its own story.

The female character in the story, Mary, has just died. Nikky the male character believes it was him that did it, due to his drug habit, he has black outs and struggles to remember. He was even given the mission to kill Mary by the villain of the story Dr X. When Nikky refused to do it, Mary was brainwashed by Dr. X to kill herself.

Every open hand’s there to push and shoveNo time for love it doesn’t matter

What a line. That is life in a nutshell. From the day we are born, people are pushing and shoving us into what they want us to be. No wonder we are all damaged a little bit. How can we love, when we don’t even know who we are. The person we see in the mirror is the molded one, the imposter.